Sailboats typically employ horned cleats which permit lines, including running rigging such as a halyard, to be tied and secured quickly. Horned cleats generally have two horns extending in opposite directions from each other. The cleats are fixed to the boat, often on the walking surface of the deck, with the horns elevated from the surface. A line can be rapidly tied to the cleat by wrapping the line around the cleat beneath the horns and securing the line with a clove hitch, in which loop of the line is twisted and secured around one of the horns, forming a figure eight.
As typical cleats often protrude from the deck in high traffic areas, the cleats present a hazard as crew can easily stub their toes or trip, or the cleat can catch a sail, tearing it if the wind is strong. Several solutions to this problem are known. For instance, spring loaded, retractable cleats, such as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,535,694, are known that are depressible to a position in which they are flush with the deck. Folding cleats are also known, as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,355, which fold to a position flush with the deck.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,339,034 teaches a mooring bit with a grooved pin that fits into a lateral opening in a body that is held firmly to a sailboat deck. The body is rounded with sloped sides and has a rounded stop member which is spring biased into the groove of the pin such that the pin may be snapped into place in the body. To render the mooring bit non-fouling, the pin can be pulled out from the opening, and sheets and lines passing across the body will not be caught on the rounded body contour. Once the pin is removed, however, the lines can no longer be attached effectively to the body because the disclosed body opening is narrow and has sharp edges that would tend to fray a line.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,352,336 teaches an adjustable cleat which is rockable with respect to a base that is secured to a boat deck. Flanges of the cleat extend downwardly about a boss of the base. A capscrew extends through the flanges and the boss to permit the cleat to rock thereabout. Similarly to the '034 patent, if the cleat were removed from the base, the remaining hole would not provide an effective structure around which to tie a line. In addition, as the cleat is not easily separable from or replaceable on the base.
In some sailboats, padeyes have replaced horned cleats. Typically, padeyes are made from hardened steel and have a base that is boltable to a boat deck and which is fixed to a semiannular bale with a rounded cross section to prevent snagging a line that passes across the padeye, and to prevent fraying a line passed through the bale. Since padeyes lack horns, they are smaller obstacles to crew moving about the deck when compared to horned cleats, reducing the risk of tripping or toe stubbing.
Lacking horns, however, lines cannot be tied to padeyes as quickly as to horned cleats. An end or a portion of a line must by passed through the opening in the bale in order to secure the line. Alternatively, a shackle, such as a snap shackle, can be spliced to the line to permit a more rapid attachment to the padeye, albeit by foregoing the ability to vary the position along the line to be secured.
Padeyes are normally positioned at the bow and stern of sailboats, and centrally along the sides of the deck. It is desirable to have horned cleats at these locations when a rapid line tying is required, as loads of more than 1000 lbs can be created on rough days in 35-50 ft. sailboats. Thus, a cleat component is needed that is readily attachable to and detachable from a padeye to provide a horned cleat.